Twilight Twenty-Five Round 8
by Melendine
Summary: My entry for round 8. It will update whenever I write it. The majority so far are slash, so if you don't like m/m love this probably isn't the story for you. No lemons. Disclaimer; SM owns the characters.
1. Prompt 8

The Twilight Twenty-Five  
thetwilight25 dot com

Prompt: #8  
Pen Name: Melendine  
Pairing/Character(s): Edward/ Jasper  
Rating: T  
Word Count: 497

Photo prompts can be found here:  
thetwilight25 dot com/round-eight/prompts

Warnings; UK drinking age, slash.

JPOV

Here I was, a 22 year old guy, spending my Friday evening with my ex & our best friends. Instead of being at a sports bar I was at this cocktail bar with the 4 of them gossiping about our men. Or lack of in my case. I became the 9th wheel after I broke up with Alice. There as a spare but never paired up. When I'd been with Alice I fit in to our group nicely, but after I came out, 2 months ago, I had no choice but to breakup with Alice, my best friend. The fallout wasn't as bad as it could have been. No one treated me any differently, but it was awkward when Peter started joining our group as Alice and I had so much shared history.

Part of that shared history was why I was here now. Last year Alice got it in to her head that we must find a decent cocktail bar in the local area. Since we were 18 we had gone to almost every alcohol serving establishment in the area. But the cocktail bars were known for their expensive drinks which were not compatible with a student's budget. So it was only a month before we graduated university we visited one. It was because of that visit that I came out. The evening had been going well, Alice was telling me about her new designs for her clothing range and I was complexly engrossed with listening to her talk about her passion. It was only when we heard last call did I see the bartender. The bartender was the hottest guy I had ever seen. I was so transfixed I didn't realize Alice had stopped talking to me. My thoughts were solely on this guy. Alice confronted me when we got back my dorm and I couldn't deny it any longer. I had been holding out hope that I was just bi-curious but my reaction to him proved that I am gay.

So here I was, 3 months afterwards, trying to find the courage to flirt with the guy. After an hour of only going up when he was busy the girls had had enough. They had dragged me to this bar flirt with him and they weren't going home until I had his contact details. I tried to point out that he may be straight or taken but Angela had already inquired with another member of staff as to his status, gay and available.

In the end Rosalie all but shoved me towards the bar with an order for 4 Cranberries and rum cocktails. It had quietened down significantly and I was soon face to face with my crush. I stammered out the order and tried to flee but his arm grabbed mine, trapping me.

Whilst he didn't kiss me then, I left the bar with 4 drinks, a business card after handing over my own and a promise.

Tomorrow is our first date.


	2. Prompt 15

The Twilight Twenty-Five  
thetwilight25 dot com

Prompt: #15  
Pen Name: Melendine  
Pairing/Character(s): Jasper & Edward  
Rating: T  
Word Count: 500

Photo prompts can be found here:  
thetwilight25 dot com/round-eight/prompts

Warning; slash.

EPOV

I'd been visiting this family run cafe for 5 months now. My relationship with Eric was so on the rocks we didn't even spend our free time together any more. Last I heard he was in Nova Scotia. The waiter had been flirting with me since the day I turned up. I should have said I was taken, but I was flattered by his attention, and his persistence.

I was back the next week. I had finally decided to call time on my relationship with Eric and my only regret is that I didn't do it earlier. The final straw was when I saw clouds in my coffee that he had made for me. We had been together about 11 months and he still hadn't learnt that the only hot drink I like is hot chocolate. I was struggling to remember what I saw in him in the first place and that was the final straw. Whilst I doubt he had been unfaithful, he wasn't mentally with me either and I deserved someone who could remember what drinks I liked, especially as we had been dating 11 months.

I watched from behind my laptop screen as a guy with major muscles came through the door and started talking with him in hushed voices. Their stance was very comfortable and I assumed that they were together. I caught the words 'happier', 'waiting for' and 'try' but without knowing the context they meant nothing to me. As quickly muscles had turned up he left, but not without reminding Jasper that Rosalie wanted progress.

I went back to my essay, trying to ignore the puzzle of Jasper's relationship with muscles, and got in to the zone. It must have been 15 minutes later that I realised there was a hot chocolate with marshmallows on the other side of the table. Jasper's eyes met mine with a smug look and he sauntered over to where I was sitting.

Once he was here I didn't actually know what I was going to say to him. So I blurted out,

"Why did your boyfriend just leave?"

"My brother-in-law?" He asked smiling whilst I think my cheeks were auditioning for being the new fire truck colour.

"So you don't have a boyfriend?" I clarified careful not to make another assumption, just because he wasn't dating muscles didn't mean he wasn't dating someone else.

"I'm currently single, although hoping to change that very soon." Jasper replied. I hadn't realized how in 1 sentence my hopes could be so high before plummeting. Of course there was someone else.

"Now, that we've established that I'm single what about you?" He asked curiously.

"Me?" I replied, somewhat stupidly.

"No, the other guy I've been flirting with for 5 months." He deadpans.

With my brain finally going in to gear I manage to say "I broke up with my boyfriend a week ago so I'm single."

Best sentence I ever said. Except the "I do" at our wedding a year ago.


	3. Prompt 16

The Twilight Twenty-Five  
thetwilight25 dot com

Prompt: #16  
Pen Name: Melendine  
Pairing/Character(s): Alice  
Rating: T  
Word Count: 419

Photo prompts can be found here:  
thetwilight25 dot com/round-eight/prompts

Alice spent her entire day in front of a map. That was what she got for being a geography teacher. However the map in her, their, bedroom had a special significance. It was a map of the world that her husband had got her, 2 days before he deployed. She knew where Iraq was, anyone who had watched the news in the last decade had. However seeing how close it was to Afghanistan was not comforting. It was barely further than Houston from Los Angeles and she had done that road trip for college.

Alice made a point of looking at it each and every night before she fell asleep. She was grateful that Jasper was in the air-force and not the navy or the army as the deployments were shorter. The map wasn't the only gift he had left her. She found out for certain yesterday and couldn't wait to inform him, but was delayed by the lack of signal at Jasper's end. His last message said that he was out of signal range for a week.

A week had never gone more slowly, except when Alice had found her engagement ring in the laundry, before he had proposed. Alice held off informing anyone else until Jasper knew, firm in her belief that her husband must be the first to know.

By the time she got on Skype she was full of nerves. Whilst Alice knew that Jasper wanted kids she wasn't so sure that the timing was right for them. Jasper still had another 2 years to go before he could leave and whilst she knew travelling around with a baby was easier than a toddler it was still daunting to know that in less than 9 months she would be responsible for another human.

However when Jasper's face came in to view on the webcam she knew that this was right for them. She had planned out different ways of announcing it, wary that he had a limited amount of time online, but had decided the easiest method was to show him a calendar with "Baby Whitlock due." His response did not disappoint, he started firing questions at her like she was under investigation and Alice could barely get a word in edgeways. It was only after a minute, once he had come back from his celebratory run around the mess tent, that she was finally able to answer his questions. Needless to say, the birth of Baby Whitlock was going to change their lives completely.


	4. Prompt 25

The Twilight Twenty-Five  
thetwilight25 dot com

Prompt: #25  
Pen Name: Melendine  
Pairing/Character(s): Jasper/ Edward  
Rating: T  
Word Count: 500

Photo prompts can be found here:  
thetwilight25 dot com/round-eight/prompts

Warnings; slash.

JPOV

When Edward insisted on stopping for a long weekend at Davenport, Iowa on our cross country trip I really shouldn't been surprised with what happened next.

The day had started fantastically. Edward had ordered the full room service breakfast, and whilst we are not bad cooks, getting stuffed on delicious food is definitely my idea of a good time, especially in bed where we could feed each other.

I eventually got up to take a shower, leaving Edward to whatever he was doing on his phone. I can't have been more than 15 minutes but when I came out of the bathroom, clothed in my smartest clothes as Edward had requested, Edward was on 1 knee in front of me. His proposal was short and sweet yet very romantic. I said yes immediately and gave me a ring. It was silver and had a small diamond imbedded in the center.

Before we could celebrate there was a knock at the door which Edward went to open immediately. To my surprise my junior year girlfriend/ current best friend was on the other side. As soon she saw my ring she started praising Edward on how he had done such a good job finding it. She caught sight of the clock on the wall though and then started dragging me out the door.

I had barely any chance to ask where we were going before Edward was following us. We had walked for about a mile before I saw where we were, Scott county record's office.

It was then Edward took my hand and led me in to the building. He had apparently already got the rest of details sorted before we left Texas so all we had to do was turn up. He had even thought to ensure that we bypassed the 4 day waiting period at a small cost of $5. We got married, with Alice as the witness, in Lafayette Park that afternoon in our suits and had Alice take photos for us. In between I had gone ring shopping and thankfully I found one that suited Edward perfectly.

We had yet to inform our parents that we had got married and I was dreading having to tell them. They would not be supportive. That was when Alice suggested the photo. We hadn't given our parents a firm date of arrival so when better to announce our marriage than when we were a 24 hour train trip away. 24 hours was long enough that they could complain to each other but short enough that we weren't too far away.

With the idea sorted I found a piece of cardboard and wrote the sign. I then stood on the railway crossing, after checking it was clear, and sat there with my wedding ring & the sign on show.

After Alice had taken the picture, and I'd got off the track, we bought our tickets to go home via the Amtrack and settled in for the final stretch, as husbands.


	5. Prompt 5

The Twilight Twenty-Five  
thetwilight25 dot com

Prompt: #5  
Pen Name: Melendine  
Pairing/Character(s): Diego/ Bree  
Rating: T  
Word Count:499

Photo prompts can be found here:  
thetwilight25 dot com/round-eight/prompts

Diego POV

I'd been with Riley 8 months and had got past the bloodthirstiness. I was his right hand man, my human life over. My brother was dead; getting my revenge for him was what got me in to this situation in the first place. My parents assumed I was dead, I am dead.

Riley changed her. At the end of the day she was going to be a vampire. My draw to her was unexplainable but powerful. I heard that she was called Bree and she was 15 going on 16. Had the circumstances been different I'd have avoided her like the plague. With the exception of my revenge spree I was on the straight and narrow and underage girls were completely off limits. However the circumstances weren't different and I know that vampires never change.

Freaky Fred had taken a liking to her. There was something about him that repelled people, hence his name, however I needed to be by that girl and managed to get past his shield. His reaction though surprised me. Instead of being on the defensive like any of the others would have been, his reaction was one of complete boredom.

Bree's skin was already pale and her features had become vamp-perfected. Whilst she looked young, she was young, she seemed more mature than 15.

I had no clue what Riley was planning. The number of us seemed to be hovering around 19, which in my eyes seemed too many to live cohesively and too few to be useful. My mind was whispering cannon fodder at me but I tried to ignore it.

I had been considering leaving. I knew that the sun couldn't hurt me and if I remained inconspicuous I could stay alive. My main reason for not going was loyalty, as much as I disliked the rest of the group, we were a group and there was safety in numbers.

Bree changed my loyalty without trying. As soon as I saw her I knew that I had bonded with her. We had to escape. And the only way I knew was by using Fred. No one could track him. All I needed to do was convince him to leave with us.

It wasn't easy, he took about an hour persuade. Which considering we were speaking quickly for a vampire, to any human it would have lasted 5 hours. But I finally convinced him. Bree was about 10 hours from 'waking up'. By my reckoning that would get us to Juneau, wilderness.

Fred would come with us. As much as I want her to myself I was rational enough to realize that another vampire would be helpful.

The plan in place, we implemented it moments later. I pulled her over my shoulder and ran for the door. It was 8am and the sun was up. No one would dare follow us. I lead, with Bree, and Fred followed swiftly behind us.

We were finally free. I just hope she likes me.


	6. Prompt 18

The Twilight Twenty-Five  
thetwilight25 dot com

Prompt: #18  
Pen Name: Melendine  
Pairing/Character(s): Edward/ Seth  
Rating: T  
Word Count: 498

Photo prompts can be found here:  
thetwilight25 dot com/round-eight/prompts

Warning; slash.

Seth POV

Edward had always been my best friend, despite being a year older than me and it was because of him that I tried so hard academically, even graduating a year early. So it hurt that he couldn't trust me with his new girlfriend in Port Angeles. I had kept my real reason for being jealous under wraps, even from him. I may have only been 17 but since I was 15 I knew I had liked Edward more than platonically.

As far as I was aware he had no idea. My mum was the only person I had outed myself to and that was only because the stupid "Are you sure you want to leave this page?" popup on my favourite gay site alerted her when she was closing my browser.

In the end the perfect opportunity didn't come up. When does it ever? Edward had stopped visiting Port Angeles so much and whilst he was still in contact with his 'friend' she no longer hogged all of him time.

We were having a leaf fight in his garden after we had finished raking the leaves from around the trees. He started it and I finished it by dumping a whole pile on his head whilst he was leaning down to grab more. The shock caused him to be off balance and as I was spinning around I slipped on a piece of now exposed ground and fell in to him. This caused us to both be on the floor, with me on top of him chest to chest. Our mouths were so close I only had to lean in slightly more until I could kiss him. But it wasn't me that kissed him, during our fall something sparked in Edward's eyes and before I could move his mouth was on mine. It was heaven.

We spent the next few minutes kissing, knowing that as soon as we stopped we would have to start talking. I pulled away first, needing to get some air, although I left my hand on his hand. We spent the next hour talking. Apparently he had non-platonic feelings towards me since he was 15 but due to being year older he didn't want to act on it, especially as he wasn't sure that I reciprocated. It also turned out that his 'girlfriend' was a 19 year old guy who he met at a bar although their relationship was in Edward's words 'casual'.

Our relationship progressed as the year went on and we went off to U-Dub together as a committed couple. We even kissed each other at graduation in full view of the entire town. Our relationship may have started because of a leaf fight but our relationship was more like a conifer tree, able to withstand any thing time could throw at us.

At least that's was Edward said in his wedding vow. He's still the most eloquent man I know and I'm lucky to be his legally recognised husband.


	7. Prompt 7

The Twilight Twenty-Five  
thetwilight25 dot com

Prompt: #7  
Pen Name: Melendine  
Pairing/Character(s): Fred  
Rating:T  
Word Count:499

Photo prompts can be found here:  
thetwilight25 dot com/round-eight/prompts

Fred POV

I liked mist. It meant I could walk undetected with ease. There were always very few people, humans, around and no one spared a second glance at the man with a hoodie drawn up around his face. Try getting away with that in Arizona. Then again, people rarely saw me, even when I was acting human.

The pickings from the bar were too easy. I like to think of myself as the modern day Robin Hood. I stop hideous crimes and my reward is a meal. Win, win in my opinion.

But recently I'd been hearing about the Cullens, again. I had already ran away from a fight with them once before and I was planning on running away again. Ideally I'd leave North America but for me it was home and I was reluctant to leave familiar areas. That and I had heard about Italian vampires being royalty and that meant that Europe was off my radar.

But one thing that did pique my interest was that they were animal eaters. I had never considered eating animals because I didn't know it was a possibility. But I was tempted. Whilst humans were like the richest chocolate cake, chocolate cake got boring after a while.

As a result I ended up in the Denali national park, a place where there were plenty of animals and quite far away from Seattle. My original plan was to camp out in the woods as it would be nice to have a place to store my possessions that didn't require human contact.

It was because of the mist that I didn't notice the mansion until it was almost in front of me. There was no road access and barely even a path. The other unusual element of it was that it smelt of vampires. I had never heard of a vampire owning a house. Riley certainly just took whichever house was suitable.

As I had nothing better to do with my existence I decided to risk going in to the house. Whilst it smelt empty there was no guarantee that the owners wouldn't return and I doubt that they would look favourably upon a strange vampire camping out in the epitome of their territory.

They had a TV and internet, a luxury for a nomad like me. For the next week I was engrossed in catching up with all the latest news from the last 6 months. I even found my obituary.

Which is why I didn't notice the vampires returning, until it was too late. I was pinned by a blond women and despite employing my most powerful repulsion technique she wasn't budging.

I'd seen other vampires in this position before, it would be moments before I was killed. At least she is pretty was my last thought before my existence ended. And it did end, but my life began, because instead of ripping my head off my body she placed a soft, tender kiss on my lips and smiled.


	8. Prompt 19

The Twilight Twenty-Five  
thetwilight25 dot com

Prompt: #19  
Pen Name: Melendine  
Pairing/Character(s):Jasper/Edward  
Rating:T  
Word Count: 489

Photo prompts can be found here:  
thetwilight25 dot com/round-eight/prompts

EPOV

1 month. 1 month. 1 month. It's been 1 month since he died and only now it is safe enough for me to visit his grave. It's well past midnight & the temperature is below 0'C, but that isn't what chills me. His grave has all the standard information on it. Jasper Whitlock April 22 1982- May 7 2011.  
Survived by his parents: Norman and Martha; sister: Kim; and brother: David. RIP. But no mention of his partner, me. The technicalities of it were that despite owning a business, sharing a mortgage (and a dog) _together_ we were not legally recognised as being _together_. So according to his homophobic family I deserved no mention on his grave, despite being his partner in every sense of the word for over 6 years.

I shouldn't have been surprised, I wasn't invited to the funeral. In fact 'not invited' was an understatement. I was half way there anyway when I was warned off with the threat of an attack. With hindsight I maybe should have gone anyway and then just pressed assault charges but I'd just lost the love of my life and I wasn't thinking clearly.

I'd returned home and tried to close out the rest of Jasper's life. Just spending the night in our bed made me break down as I realised I would never again see his blue eyes opening in the morning. I did have a few minutes with him after he had died courtesy of the nurses bending the rules, however nothing makes up for not being by his bedside in his final hour of life. A privilege only 'family' can have.

And whilst I was robbed of that precious moment I was determined to named on his grave. Which is why I brought Emmett with me. He was the best carver there was and happened to have been a friend of ours.

Now that 1 month has passed we are less likely to be noticed and no one in their right mind is out now. Emmett estimated that it would take only 40 minutes to add me to the stone, which gave me time alone with Jasper before dawn broke.

I ended up spending 2 hours just talking to him, telling him how much I missed him, how life was never going to be the same. Eventually my tears dried and I had said all that could be said. I knew my grief was going to remain with me but I had completed the first step of letting him go.

It was on the first anniversary that I posted the video, trying to relieve myself of the grief that I felt. 18 months later 4 million people know my story and whilst Norman and Martha may have tried to erase me from memory all they succeeded in doing was ensuring that a spotlight was shined on Jasper & mine's partnership for the world to see.


	9. Prompt 21

The Twilight Twenty-Five  
thetwilight25 dot com

Prompt: #21  
Pen Name: Melendine  
Pairing/Character(s): Emmett/Jasper  
Rating: T  
Word Count: 500

Photo prompts can be found here:  
thetwilight25 dot com/round-eight/prompts

JPOV

I was a soldier. I was sucked up by the patriotism of it, the honour. I had never truly considered what would happen if I got injured. All I can say is that I was lucky, firstly because the bullet that lodged in my upper thigh was being aimed at my head. And I hadn't even noticed. It was only because an explosion went off did the sniper's aim fall short and secondly, because this was 2 weeks after DADT was finally repealed.

I'd registered Emmett as my next of kin as soon as we were serious about each other. However until last week he had only been listed as friend. I'd been in a committed relationship with him for 4 years now and none of my colleagues, who I trusted with my life, knew of his significance. I doubt anybody had even guessed as everyone assumed he was with my sister. Rose was living in our house with Emmett and there were a lot of photos, near the webcam, of the 2 of them together. My passion for photography meant that I was often the one behind the lens and they were my willing subjects.

Because we couldn't say "I love you" for fear of getting caught, we used a tap signal. I'm sure my colleagues just assumed it was a weird college frat thing. But it kept me sane through the long deployments and reminded me of what I was fighting for, a life where I couldn't casually exchange PDA with my partner in public, let alone have our relationship legally recognised by our home state.

My injury did have a silver lining. I was able to get home to Emmett sooner and after we had got everything sorted we planned our vacation to a place with an outdoor swimming pool.

If you looked at the pair of us and were told to guess which one of us was in the army, after being told the other was a writer, I bet you you would guess wrong. Emmett is pure muscle, whereas I was lean and quick.

I was still weak from my injury and whilst rehab was working, I could still only stand up for 30 minutes at a time so whilst I was satisfied being parked on the jetty and getting my feet wet, which I did for a few minutes, I couldn't really feel. So Emmett was able to help me stand, with my wet feet, and then lift me to the edge of the jetty so just my heel was on the floor and then let me fall in to him until we were in the water, together.

We swam for a while but all too soon it was time to get back, so Emmett placed me back in my wheelchair and we went back to the hotel to dry off and get changed. We couldn't be late to our own wedding; Rose would never forgive us if we missed the sunset.


	10. Prompt 23

The Twilight Twenty-Five  
thetwilight25 dot com

Prompt: #23  
Pen Name: Melendine  
Pairing/Character(s): Bella  
Rating: T  
Word Count: 360

Photo prompts can be found here:  
thetwilight25 dot com/round-eight/prompts

EPOV

Nessie had been grounded by Charlie. He didn't really have that power over her physically but he didn't know that. Which is why I was there. Nessie had been disrespectful at supper time as she yelled about how the guidance councillors were not helping those who needed it most. Whilst she was correct is some respects, I'm a mindreader so I know these things, she should have not yelled.

She knew I was here, but she was ignoring me. She had already made it very clear that Charlie had grounded her to the house and therefore the roof was not off limits, something that I decided was not worth arguing against.

I was here to stop her leaving the house, something that Alice had predicted would happen soon, although she hadn't seen the cause. This generally meant that Jacob, my daughter's 'friend', was involved.

And sure enough Jacob turned up less than an hour later, with plans to take Nessie to the beach. However, Nessie stayed on the roof but she and Jacob carried on a conversation for a good hour until I finally had enough. He then knocked on Charlie's door and went inside to talk with Charlie and Sue. How they didn't notice him when he was outside I'd never know.

He wasn't able to get Nessie allowed downstairs, no contact with Jake being the other part of the punishment Charlie had decided on. It was something Charlie & I disagreed on but as Ness was staying with him this week he had jurisdiction. But he was able to get himself invited over for breakfast tomorrow. Which I knew was code for him sleeping in Ness's room tonight. I had disapproved at the beginning but as Jacob's intentions were completely innocent I now reluctantly accepted it.

The task of being responsible for a daughter. How do non-mindreaders cope?

And speaking of being responsible, I'd better go and pencil in the guidance councillor meetings. The ability to anonymously nominate someone for a meeting was Carlisle's solution to getting around not being able to be there in person and it was established just before Carlisle retired from public view.


	11. Prompt 22

The Twilight Twenty-Five  
thetwilight25 dot com

Prompt: #22  
Pen Name: Melendine  
Pairing/Character(s): Edward/ Carlisle  
Rating: T  
Word Count:499

Photo prompts can be found here:  
thetwilight25 dot com/round-eight/prompts

Warning; slash

EPOV

This is the last corner before I see my new home. And I'm so glad that I'm almost there.

My housing problem started a month ago. I couldn't live in my sister's guestroom anymore as it will nursery in a month. I couldn't afford rent by myself whilst studying and I didn't know of anyone looking for a roommate. My grandma & a few friends offered me their sofa but that was only a short-term solution and I needed to find something quick.

I'd been 'dating' a guy for the last few weeks, from just before I knew that I had to leave, and that relationship had further complicated my life as he wasn't out. If he hadn't been so compassionate I would have ditched him by now but he was currently the only bright star in the bleak sky.

The deadline of Monday was looming so he offered to help me spend an entire Saturday just looking through the columns to find anywhere for me to go. But our search was fruitless and I was getting more frustrated as every hour went by.

When he offered me a room that evening I accepted as I could not be bothered to go back to my sister's place as it was very late and I was almost asleep. He seemed to be excited that I had decided to not go back to my sister's that evening but I was too tired to care.

I woke in the morning to him putting breakfast on the table, it was a feast compared to my normal breakfast of a bowl of cereal. He'd even laid out the table with cutlery.

As he sat down his expression seemed pensive and I was starting to worry about what he was thinking. I'd only known him for a month and whilst we were 'dating' we hadn't met up that often. He seemed to struggle to speak, which was very unlike Carlisle, before he finally took a deep breath to calm himself.

What he said next shocked me. Last night he wasn't offering me a place to crash so I didn't have to drive, he was offering me his guest room to live in.

My first answer was a refusal, I was barely dating this guy so there was no way I could be his live-in 'roommate'. However he presented very convincing arguments that showed how he would benefit from this; he liked cooking and hated only cooking for 1, his room hadn't had guests in for ages so it would finally be useful, he hated having no one to discuss current events with and his most convincing argument- if I moved in he could give up his terrible job and focus on his studies more as he could afford half the place using just his grant. That and he gently pointed out that I was desperate. So I accepted.

So here I was, on a wonderful autumn evening, transferring my belongings to my new home.


End file.
